1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and a system for rendering a widget, and more particularly, to a method and a system which can adjust the display size of the widget automatically.
2. Description of the Related Art
As well known, computer systems (e.g., personal computers, laptops, handheld computing devices, cellular phones) allow users to perform tasks or enjoy services by using one or more various types of computer applications. For example, commonly used and prominent computer applications relate to word processing, electronic mail services, portable document viewing and editing, spreadsheets, graphics packages, and Internet browsers. Such applications, referred to herein as “mainstream applications”, are generally commercial in nature and complexly coded by teams of developers over relatively long periods of time.
One type of mainstream application that has become almost universal among computer systems is the Internet browser (e.g., Internet Explorer® by Microsoft Corporation, Safari™ by Apple Computer, Inc., Blazer® by Palm, Inc., Firefox® by Mozilla Corporation, Opera™ by Opera Software ASA). As the number of computer systems having access to the Internet continues to grow, users are becoming increasingly accustomed to the availability of real-time information accessible via Internet browsers. Those skilled in the art will recognize that the amount of real-time information available on the Internet is virtually boundless. For example, using their Internet browser, a user can retrieve real-time weather information, news, stock prices, sports scores, and traffic conditions.
Using a mainstream Internet browser application to access information on the Internet generally requires the user to open up the Internet browser, search for or enter an address of a website, wait for the website to load, and then click on links or otherwise navigate through the website for the desired information. In an effort to streamline this process, mini-applications have been made available to allow a user to see real-time Internet-based information on his/her “desktop”. Such mini-applications have become to be known in the art as “widgets”.
Widgets are generally created by developers. The web page with the widgets created by the developers may be applied to the devices having different display sizes. In general, the widget only has one size. Even if a variety of sizes of the widget are provided, the size of the widget cannot be adjusted or changed. FIGS. 1A˜1B are schematic diagrams of the web pages with the same widget in different devices. As shown in FIGS. 1A˜1B, the device 10 and the device 12 with different display sizes both display the same web page. However, the content of the widget 100 rendered by the device 10 and the content of the widget 120 rendered by the device 12 are the same. Even if the display size of the device 10 is larger than the display size of the device 12, the display size of the widget 100 of the device 10 cannot be adjusted to render more content.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and a system for rendering a widget that can adjust the display size and the display content of the widget automatically to correspond with the display size of the display rendering the widget.